


Maybe They're Magic

by TheSonsofDurin



Series: Skyfall [6]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-04-19 13:00:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14237832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSonsofDurin/pseuds/TheSonsofDurin
Summary: James has trouble listening to 20th century science talk. His companions have trouble listening to his tales of magic from the 18th century.





	Maybe They're Magic

James tries to pay attention to what Samberly and Howard are saying, he really does. Except, well, he understands extremely little of what the scientists are saying. He knows they’re trying to explain some theory of time travel. Many theories of time travel? Something like that. He’s heard something about a ‘Grandfather Paradox’ and ‘causal loops’, but the actual meaning of the words has escaped him. The others in the room, however, seem to be following.

James crosses his arms, annoyed. Can  _ anything  _ just be  _ simple _ , for once? Of course not, because his life hasn’t been simple since… well, since Jack Sparrow showed up in it. Cursed gold, fish men, hearts that beat outside of chests, time travel- and a seeming Fetch of Gillette!- he’s seen far too many complicated matters in his life.

James sighs. Mr. Jarvis looks sideways at him. “Is everything alright?” He asks.

“Perfectly.” He answers.

Miss Carter gives him an odd look, but doesn’t comment.

Samberly and Howard continue talking as if they haven’t heard a thing. Perhaps they haven’t, though James and Mr. Jarvis must have been loud enough for them to hear. He tries to listen to them once again.

No luck. The first words he hears are “Einstein-Rosen Bridges” and he zones out again. But then he hears “Planeswalking” and “land of the dead” and becomes uncomfortably aware of the conversation.

“What was that?” James asks, too surprised by the turn in conversation to be embarrassed by the admission that he hasn’t been listening.

Everyone looks at him. “We were talking about wormholes.” Samberly says.

“If wormholes exist, which we know they do, then they could be why you’ve managed to time travel.” Howard adds.

“And there’s every reason to believe that if wormholes could allow someone or something to time travel, or move outside of this dimension like with Zero Matter, then wormholes could be used to access some sort of afterlife.” Samberly finishes.

James blinks. Once again, he understands very little of what was actually said. He thinks he gets the general bit of it, though. “I can assure you that an afterlife exists.” He says.

“Seriously?” Samberly asks. “How do you know? Have you been there? How?”

“No, I’ve never been. I know some people that have, though.” James looks at Chief Sousa. “So perhaps one of these ‘wormholes’ is what brought me here.”

“Do you know how to get to that afterlife, though?” Samberly pushes.

James looks at him crossly. “No, I don’t. I would have asked, but it would have either been the fish man or the woman I was trying to save, and neither were particularly friendly with me at any time I had the chance to ask.”

There’s a silence.

“...fish...man?” Mr. Jarvis asks timidly.

“Unfortunately. The story is that he was cursed by the goddess Calypso to ferry the dead, and when he refused to continue he was changed. Davy Jones.” James curls his lip. “I’m still not sure whether he and his crew were better or worse than the pirates that were cursed to be skeletons under the moonlight.”

Once again, silence. “I would think that in the year 1947 people would have become more aware of the workings of the world, rather than less.”

For the first time, Jack speaks up. “Nick says he’s seen mermaids. Only when he’s drunk, though. He’s gotten pretty serious about it before.”

James tries to ignore the feeling in his chest at the name Nick- hadn’t the Fetch of Gillette said that was his name? “I’ve never seen a mermaid but I wouldn’t be surprised if they existed. I knew a man- Theodore Groves- who insisted his mother had met a mermaid before. I always had to listen to him and Gillette argue over whether his mother was telling the truth or not.”

“Sounds like Nick and this Theodore Groves guy would get along pretty well.” Jack says.

_ You’ve no idea _ , James thinks.  _ If what I suspect is the truth, at least _ .

“Were they friends of your in the Navy?” Miss Carter asks.

“Lieutenants under me. But yes, I would say we were friends. I do miss them.” James shifts on his feet. “I wonder what happened to them. Many of the people I knew, actually. Though I suppose it wouldn’t be too entirely difficult to find books on them. Pirates seem to be extremely popular. I was always dealing with pirates.”


End file.
